@Lotteryticket, the door to the bathroom is the end of the hallway that is not visible in the photo or on the drawing. That hallway is about 8' long by 44" wide. The bathroom is above a stairwell in a dormer so the wall are outside walls and the one at the foot of the tub is the space for the stairwell. We are stuck with this foot print unless we want to go big - and we really don't. This room also faces north so while I love the light that the window brings in, it does limit what can be done in the space.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. Running it vertically is definitely an option and something I hadn't thought of so thank you! My only worry about running everything up the posts all the way now is that it will add significantly to my costs which have already grown bigger than I was planning so I was kind of hoping that I could find a way to make it look ok without having to go all out which is why I was considering all the options. Jerzee girl, were you talking about the white trim in that link or the stone on the underside? Snookums, yes, I believe they did everything correctly and I've been here throughout the whole process and watched each step -- from cement board and mud pan and building the curb all the way to the entire shower coated in redguard... They are very careful and have a good reputation in the area. Anyway, thanks all and I hope more people will chime in.

@emilymch - It's great you're planning and thinking this through. Either of the 3 plans seem to work. It's all about the toilet and some tradeoffs. I really think the 72 inch vanity is key. A 60 inch vanity leaves little room between people AND the sinks are usually ridiculously small. I'd sacrifice in other areas to get more vanity space. Adding walls will reduce the size of things which may not be optimal. For instance, take your layout where the toilet is on the upper left. You've got 147 inches on the long wall. Code requires a toilet to be 15 inches from the center of any obstruction so the minimum width of your WC is 30 inches. Depending on where your floor joists are the room may have to be larger. So at the minimum you add 4.5 inches for the wall to enclose the space (more if adding a pocket door). Then add 72 inches for your vanity and another 4.5 for your shower pony wall and you're at 111 inches. You've only got 36 inches left for your shower. It would still be quite spacious the other way. Would that bother you? If you could steal 6 inches from your closet, that would help, but that's getting into another expense and you may not have to space or want to do that. The same goes if you keep the toilet where it is and turn it. Obviously this doesn't happen with a 60 inch vanity, but that's not a choice I would make. A 66 inch vanity would be better but they are few and far between. Ordering online without seeing the sink size is not wise. My sister just did that (against my advice) and is very disappointed in the size of her sink. She says it's "mini". If you leave the toilet where it is, then things work out better. 42 inch shower, 4.5 wall, 72 inch vanity=118.5 which leaves you 28.5 inches left for storage at the end of the run, which should be good. I wouldn't put up a pony wall or anything. Your toilet would be open. Does that bother you? It wouldn't bother me, but we are all different. It' always trade offs and $$$.

You need a very accurate scaled drawing of the existing space. Then a scaled drawing of the PLAN for the new space. A plumbing wall needs six inches depth. This ( below ) tells us nothing..........: ) It is not a "floor plan" A floor plan has inches. Contractor states he can push the bedroom closet wall back about 12 inches (roof/vents on the opposite end) and turn the shower horizontally into that closet space. He can remove the bathroom door and pony walls (used to be a sliding door closet). We are currently looking to put the toilet on the left of the vanity, scoot the vanity over to the right just a bit and build a wall and pocket door at the entrance.